"I think people have found that it’s worked a bit differently. I’m very happy with what Sonny has already done for our club and our team.

"He committed so much to 2013, so if he decided to go, he would have gone with our blessing.

"So it was not about being nervous. We had respect for what he’d already done."

Speaking after Sunday night’s grand final win, Robinson acknowledged the Williams scenario was a

"gamble".

The waiting game burdened the Roosters with a significant grey area over their 2014 salary cap, making it more difficult for the club to finalise one-year extensions for veteran pair Anthony Minichiello and Luke O’Donnell with certainty.

Robinson expected Williams to take several more weeks to make up his mind, but a much briefer time frame emerged when the pair met to discuss the player’s future on Tuesday.

At their meeting Williams told the coach that a decision would be made by Thursday night.

"I’ve said for a long time I didn’t ask Sonny any questions and Tuesday was the first time I did," Robinson said.

"We had a series of one-on-one player review meetings and he told me he wanted to make a decision fairly quickly.

"I had no idea about what the time frame was going to be, but from that conversation we agreed that we would speak again on Thursday night."

By that time Robinson was stopping-over in Singapore en route to a well-earned break in France with his young family.

He said Williams broke the news without any fanfare.

"It was pretty simple like it has been all year between us," Robinson said.

"He just said, ‘I’m staying for another year’. We are all very happy.

"We did chat about his reasons, but I won’t go into that.

"He was excited about the challenge. Whatever Sonny does is, it needs to be something that’s challenging enough."

As was the case this year, Williams won’t sign-on with the Roosters until mid-February.

He’s already planned to have at least one more fight after the World Cup, possibly in South Africa.

"I’ve got no problem with that," Robinson said.

"Looking back, nothing astounds me about what Sonny can do. He played great footy with us. Every time we had a big moment in a game he stood up. Every single time."

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